The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE is the clamshell we really didn’t need

Introduction

Samsung is seemingly out to please everyone with its 2025 flip phones. While the Z Flip 7 has been given a thoroughly modern makeover, the firm has also launched its first Fan Edition clamshell, bringing back familiar features at a more palatable price.

The Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE isn’t quite a Z Flip 6 under a new name. Samsung has swapped to its own silicon, and introduced a new version of Android – before Google itself could do so with its Pixel range. But there’s plenty here you’ve heard before, including a pair of outer cameras, a modest battery capacity, and a distinctive – but not front-filling – cover screen.

Given it arrives at $899/£849, the Flip 7 FE looks like a tough sell when the phone on which it’s based can still be found on sale, often for considerably less. Did living with one for two weeks as my main handset change that view?

Design & build: generation game

Put it side-by-side with the Galaxy Z Flip 7 and the FE instantly feels like it hails from the previous generation. They weigh roughly the same, but the bigger brother is slimmer, has much skinnier screen bezels, and the outer display now fills the entire front of the phone. The FE brings back the asymmetrical cover seen on the Z Flip 6, and is chunkier in your palm – though not so much you’ll notice when stuffing it into a pocket.

About the only thing separating it visually from the Z Flip 6 is the lack of accent rings around the rear camera lenses. That, or the fact you can only have one in black or white colours. The older phone had a much more varied colour palette.

This clamshell’s Armor Aluminium frame has the flat sides that are all the rage right now, along with Gorilla Glass Victus 2 protecting the front and rear panels. My white review unit did a decent job at disguising fingerprints, though the front panel still needed regular polishing to keep it looking box-fresh. The whole thing is IP48-rated, which is about as good as dust protection gets on flip phones. Accidental dunkings in water are less of a concern.

Side-mounted fingerprint sensors built into the power button are practically the clamshell standard at this point. Samsung’s effort works just as well as any other, recognising my right thumb and left index finger (yes, I’m a southpaw) quickly enough. There’s facial recognition if you want it, though I found it less useful with the phone folded as I’d normally be pressing the power button to wake it up anyway.

Screen & sound: familiar faces

While the Galaxy Z Flip 7’s front is now almost entirely made of screen, the FE sticks with the angular AMOLED used for the last few Flip generations. The notched corner that leaves room for the two outer cameras lenses and thick black bezels around all four sides feel properly behind the times now, with even Motorola’s affordable clamshell having a full-screen setup.

At 3.4in it’s big enough to comfortably fit four widgets onscreen at once, or act as a camera viewfinder without having to squint, but Samsung still makes it too hard to get full apps running on it. You can pick from a few approved ones, like messages, maps and YouTube, but have to install the firm’s Multistar customisation tool for anything else. Motorola handles this far better.

The OLED panel is still a treat for the eyes, with vibrant colours and outstanding contrast. It’s stuck at 60Hz, but that’s only noticeable when swiping rapidly between widgets. There’s enough brightness for clear outdoor visibility, to the point I could leave my sunglasses on when checking notifications. That wasn’t always the case with the Z Flip 6.

Inside, you’re looking at a 6.7in panel with a 22:9 aspect ratio. It’s both shorter and narrower than the Z Flip 7, so you might find it easier to use one-handed if you’ve got particularly small paws. I didn’t really notice the difference, and it’s not so narrow as to impact apps. The 120Hz refresh rate helps motion feel that bit smoother than on the outer screen, but colours and contrast are a very close match. Viewing angles and touch response, too.

I still think Samsung’s pre-applied plastic screen protectors are too reflective, but ramping the brightness can offset it well enough. The display crease isn’t especially noticeable unless you go looking for it, though the Flip 7’s is subtler still.

There didn’t seem to be much difference on the sound front between the Flip 7 FE and the Flip 6. Both have a down-firing main driver and earpiece tweeter that get decently loud and have an alright amount of bass for a flip phone.

Cameras: haven’t I seen you before?

The Galaxy Z Flip FE’s 50MP main snapper – good for 2x ‘lossless’ zoom – and 12MP ultrawide are basically identical to what you got on the Z Flip 6 last year. But they’re also an exact match for the pricier Z Flip 7, so you’re not giving up anything on the photography front by picking the more affordable phone.

Generational gains are really only on the software side, and are likely to make their way backwards once Samsung pushes a firmware update to the Z Flip 6. For now, at least, you’re getting an an auto-framing mode when recording in the Flex mode. I like that you can still hold the phone sideways like a camcorder to put the zoom controls – which support a smooth zoom mode – within easy reach when shooting video.

Samsung’s flip phone cameras can usually be relied to put in a decent showing, and that was largely true here. In good light, the Flip 7 FE captures colourful, contrast-heavy shots with good amounts of dynamic range. Sharpening isn’t overdone and it doesn’t try too hard to expose for dark shadows, which leads to a fairly natural-looking presentation.

2x zoom snaps hold up well, with no obvious upscaling artifacts on show. The camera app also offers a 4x toggle, which while a little crunchier and over-processed, still hold up well during daylight hours. Low light sees noise quickly creep in, and even dialling back to 1x can’t eliminate it entirely. Capturing moving subjects then becomes much trickier – a shame, as Samsung has really improved this historical weak point when there’s a lot of light available.

There’s a slight variance in colour temperature between the main and ultrawide cameras, and without autofocus the latter can’t also act as a macro lens for close-ups. It can’t keep up in terms of resolved detail, either. It’ll do in a pinch, but I rarely reached for it unless I couldn’t physically fit a scene into frame. If you want versatility or the best image quality going, a non-folding phone is still the way to go.

Software experience: almost everything

It might have a smaller cover screen, but functionally the Galaxy Flip 7 FE is essentially on a par with its bigger brother. Like the Flip 7, it arrives running Android 16, with Samsung’s One UI 8 skin on top. That means the Now Bar makes an appearance, for a handy at-a-glance rundown of your day so far, and there’s no shortage of Galaxy AI-accelerated apps to experiment with.

There’s an awful lot to get your head around if you’re a Samsung ecosystem newbie, with menus upon menus stuffed with features and home screens filled with colourful icons. It’ll feel more familiar if you’re coming from a One UI 7 smartphone, as the overall look hasn’t changed all that much.

The only major omission is DeX support, meaning you can’t wirelessly hook this phone up to a screen, mouse, and keyboard like you can with the Flip 7. You’re unlikely to miss it if you’ve never used the feature before, especially now that Android 16’s 90:10 split multitasking makes working across two apps at once far easier.

Samsung’s update commitments are as good as it gets for a flip phone, with seven years of new Android generations as well as security patches promised. No Motorola is currently set to get this level of long-term support.

Performance & battery life: home-grown

Both of Samsung’s 2025 clamshells are powered by silicon developed in-house, but only the full-fat Flip 7 gets the latest iteration. The FE instead recycles the Exynos 2400 last seen powering European variants of the Galaxy S24. It’s also paired with 8GB of RAM, rather than the 12GB seen on the pricier handset, and comes with either 128GB or 256GB of on-board storage.

Unsurprisingly the older CPU cores and last-gen GPU produce synthetic benchmark scores a fair bit lower than what the Z Flip 7 can manage, and it’s slower across the board than the Snapdragon-equipped Galaxy Z Flip 6 – if not by a particularly wide margin. There’s still enough grunt to run Android smoothly, with no obvious stutters or slowdown, and the majority of my mobile games played at a decent lick. Only the most demanding titles will force details and effects down to maintain a higher frame rate. Given the price that’s a respectable showing all round, though non-folding handsets costing similar have more muscle.

I did notice the phone was very quick to throttle with sustained heavy loads, suggesting there’s only so much Samsung can do to cool the hardware when it’s mostly contained to one half of the clamshell body. It never got uncomfortably hot to the touch, but there was a clear difference between the top half and the bottom, where the battery lives.

Speaking of, you’re getting a 4000mAh cell here – the same capacity as the Galaxy Z Flip 6. With a largely identical set of screens and a chipset hardly renowned for its stamina, I wasn’t too surprised that the Flip 7 FE lasted about as long as the model it effectively replaces.

That meant I could get through a day of moderate use, but no more. Using the outer screen for some tasks helps, but not enough to avoid having to plug in before heading to bed. Heavy gaming or 4K video recording could require a top-up by mid-afternoon. It’s definitely worth saving up for the Z Flip 7 if longevity is important to you, as its extra capacity makes all the difference.

Whichever you go for, charging speeds aren’t anything to write home about – as is the norm for Samsung. 25W over USB-C is very slow in 2025, and while you do at least get wireless charging (not always a guarantee on flip phones), it’s limited to 15W.

Samsung Galaxy Flip 7 FE verdict

On its lonesome, the Galaxy Flip 7 FE is a decent enough clamshell. It’s powerful enough for daily duties, takes clean and colourful photos, and arrives running the very latest version of Android. Samsung’s update commitments are also excellent, and OneUI is as feature-packed as they come – even if it still doesn’t quite unlock the cover screen’s full potential.

The problem is you could say exactly the same about the Galaxy Z Flip 6, which is still readily available. The two are practically tied on specs, but the older handset can now be found at a significant discount from its original retail price. That makes it the obvious choice for anyone wanting a flip phone on a more modest budget.

A hefty price cut – and Galaxy Z Flip 6 reserves finally running dry – could add to its appeal, but until then this is a Fan Edition phone that doesn’t do quite enough to earn its fans.

Samsung Galaxy Flip7 FE technical specifications